Wednesday, 25 November 2015

The call from the Bishops of England and Wales that
the Good Friday prayer concerning the Jews is quite extraordinary.

It concerns a prayer said in not more than half a
dozen churches once a year, and was composed by a still-living Pope.

But even that is not the worst thing. The really worrying
thing is the bad theology which underlies the request. The explanatory statement
(here) runs as follows: The 1970s prayer reflected the new thinking on the
position of Judaism with regards to Catholicism found within Nostra Ætate. This
was because Nostra Ætate “acknowledged the unique spiritual bond between
Christians and Jews since it was the Jews who first heard the Word of God.”
Even St John Paul II had said in 1980 that the covenant had never been revoked.
Since the church is giving inconsistent messages the Jewish community is upset,
so the new prayer of Pope Benedict XVI should be changed.

Let us leave for a moment that this quote of St John
Paul II was made during a speech, and so when he said that the covenant had
never been revoked, it has little, unspecified, doctrinal weight. Let us also leave for a
moment that if a newer prayer has been issued to replace an older one, then it would
seem logical that the newer (Benedict XVI’s) should have priority. If there are
mixed messages being given (one of the problems cited by the Bishops), then
they should be modified in line with the newer not the older prayer – 1970 out,
2008 in.

But ignoring all this, the truly worrying thing is
that this comes from a misreading of Nostra Ætate and the Vatican II documents
as a whole. Yes the documents continually stress the close bonds between the Jews
and the Church. Yes they are the community who first heard the word of God. But
in no place does the Council state or even imply that the message of the Kingdom
should not be preached to all people, including the Jews. The forgotten
document Ad Gentes is clear on this point.

And what exactly is this covenant that is being
appealed to? Which one? Is it one of the Ancient ones of the Old Testament:
Sinai, David, Abraham, Adam, Noah, Phineas, the New Covenant? The Old Testament
does not speak of ‘the’ covenant, so why is Judaism now to be defined as ‘the
people of the covenant’? They aren’t in their own scriptures, they aren’t in the
New Testament, they aren’t in the early church, they aren’t in the Vatican II documents.

In trying to avoid charges of supersessionism, the
Bishops are proposing an imperialist Christian definition of Judaism which
straitjackets it into Christian terms. Oh, and subsumes all of the ‘Jews’ into
one undifferentiated lot.

So what are the theological implications of the Bishops’
calls? A dual covenant theology, where one is ‘never revoked’ and the other, in
Christ, is the one that we Christians go by? We would have to repudiate Dominus
Iesus (2000), ignore Ad Gentes, rewrite the rest of Vatican II, reformulate our
Christology and theology of redemption. This is just the beginning. Why should we
ignore the covenant with all creation in Noah? How dare we bring the message of
Christ to anyone… did not God make them all? Should they not all grow in their
revelations of the divine?

Are we really to believe that the Bishops suddenly
woke up one morning, seven years after its promulgation and though “wait a
minute… there might be a problem with this prayer”. And if not, why have they
ignored the deeply seated concerns about the hurt ‘Judaism’ felt for those same seven
years?

Or is this internal church politics, where
suddenly the Bishops feel brave enough to ask Rome to roll back the theology of
Benedict XVI and the use of the Latin Mass? Like some child sneaking into the classroom
at the end of the day and scribbling on someone else’s work when the teacher
has gone home.

Perhaps this really is out of concern for
Jewish/Catholic relations, but the implications are massive. It is based on bad theological foundations and will ultimately lead to more hurt and offense. Bad theology
will never lead to good praxis. Bad theology leads to bad situations.

-----

As an aside I wonder which theologians the Bishops
consulted. There are few of us in this field. Admittedly I am just a second
year PhD student working on ‘Covenantal Theology in Catholic/Jewish relations
after Nostra Ætate’ supported by my Catholic Diocese, but hey, what would I
know.

Thursday, 5 November 2015

Today our country celebrates the burning of a Catholic. The historical situation was one of treason, but its continued celebration was one of anti-Catholicism.

I am fond of Guy Fawkes, my first dry Mass as a seminarian was a requiem for the repose of his soul. And I remember a poem I wrote in my primary school about him:

Under the clock of Big BenLay Guy Fawkes and his menWith one and a half tonnes of dynamiteGuy Fawkes waited until night.

But the cellar was searched the night beforeGuy Fawkes' companions watched with aweGuy Fawkes was placed upon the rack,They made a plan to rebel back.

Not high art, I know, but I was only nine - give me a break. Funnily though, I have remembered it for 36 years.

So today Lewis will burn an effigy of the Pope (here) to continue the anti-Catholic atmosphere. Actually I hope they do burn an effigy of him. If not, then the Pope is reconciled to the world, accepted by it, and we are no longer counter-cultural and no longer represent Christ.

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

What was the Synod on the family doing? I think it might have been one of two things. First it might have been an exercise in bringing to a public forum the thoughts of the Church was a
whole: laity, religious, clergy and the Holy Father. I suppose this is why
there was a consultation from each Bishop to His diocese. These were brought
together by the representatives of the Bishops’ Conferences to the Synod.

Or second perhaps it was a synod of Bishops, who in order to take
the temperature of their dioceses, consulted the clergy, religious and laity,
and then got together to talk about it.

And the purpose of both of these was to let the Pope know
what was going on, so that he could either (i) be informed or (ii) issue a
statement. We have seen in the past how this helped Saint John Paul II know
what was going on in parts of the world that he didn’t have too much knowledge
of, like Asia for example.

If the synod thought it was doing the first of
these things (bringing the thoughts of the Church together in the public
forum), then there are some practical problems. The most obvious is the
question of whether Cardinal Nichols and Bishop Peter Doyle represented the
views of the Church in England and Wales. And how did they know our
views, and how do we know what they actually said.

This is the
place for wonderful paranoia – however I know that some voices are listened to
more than others. If someone is agreeing with you, you rate it much more highly
than a voice which is diametrically opposed. That is human nature. Where was I
at the synod? Where was my voice? Or yours? Or anyone’s?

It is, I’m afraid the problem of representative
democracy. The synod could not possibly be that, and I do not think that it
was.

So we are left with the second view – a meeting of
Bishops, who, in order to be informed, consulted their clergy, religious and
laity. They chose how it was going to be done, and collated the information and
used it in whatever manner they wished. It does not matter if they represent
anyone’s views. And they do not have to reference either their own people, nor,
importantly, their fellow Bishops, who were not chosen for this august honour.

In my opinion, the synod on the Family was
essentially a group of Bishops who had been chosen by the Pope to advise/inform
him. This was done either through direct Papal choice or by ‘allowing’ Bishops’
Conference to elect from among themselves who was to go to Rome.

Welcome to the website of the Friends of the Suffering Souls, a Catholic Lay Association conducting a perpetual novena of Masses for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.This association was inspired by the 100 consecutive Masses offered for the Holy Souls by the Venerable Archdeacon Cavanagh, Parish Priest of Knock prior to the appearance there of Our Blessed Mother in 1879.Each member undertakes to arrange at least one Mass each year for our deceased members and for all the Holy Souls.But you can arrange as many Masses as you wish for this novena.It is our goal to reach an average of 200 Masses for the holy souls each and every day of the year.

I have been a member for a number of years. You undertake to have a Mass said (in the new form or the Traditional form) at least once a year - they suggest on your birthday, as it is a date that you always remember.

Purgatorial societies were always a part of the life of the Church and are still essential. There were whole Churches dedicated to it. See here, for example.

Please pray for the souls in purgatory, and have masses said for them. It is the only help that we can now give them.

Sunday, 1 November 2015

The term has been used by some as a short hand for
‘the governance of the Church’, and this is, I think, incorrect. People have
started to think that synodality can be equated with the way the church should
be run. They are confusing synodal governance with synodality.

Synodal governance is exercising authority through
synodal means, and rather like democracy, could take many forms. It could be
that different constituents come together and vote and that if all of the ‘synods’
agree, then this becomes law. Or that a majority of them do. Synods here are
shorthand for ‘groups of people’.

We could put this forward in the following manner
that a synod should contain its own type of people – a synod of laity, of
religious, of clerics, of Bishops etc. And that they could the generate ideas,
correctives, advances, restraints, and that the whole would then function like
a well oiled machine.

Or we could have an idea of synodal governance
where each synod would comprise all of the elements mentioned above – a synod
would have Bishops, clergy, religious, laity and would similarly function to
propose certain elements of governance for the people of God.

Of course we would have to remove the bar from
governance strictly being limited to the ordained, but that could be done.

We might run into problems of one geographic synod
opposing another – what is forbidden in Poland is allowed in England and Wales
for example. Or a synod of Bishops opposing a synod of laity.

But of course both of these, I submit, are flawed
interpretations of synodality.

Synodality is not about governance. It is not
about who rules what and who decides what. In founding the Church, Christ was
clear that there were different gifts, different charisms given to different
people, and types of people within His Body, which is the Church.

And God has appointed in the church first
apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then
healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all
possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (I Cor
12)

Governance is a gift of the spirit. It finds its
place within synodality. Synodality does not exist to exercise authority any more
than the National Health Service exists to have a chief executive, or the UK to
have a monarch.

When synodality is deformed simply to talk about
who makes decisions, then it is pointless, and rather at odds with our founder,
who, let us remember happens to be God.

So are we any closer to knowing what synodality
is? And what actually was the synod on the family doing?

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Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury

The Glastonbury Prayers

O Lord Jesus Christ, whose glorious Mother was honoured for so many centuries under the title of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury, grant that through her intercession, together with that of your blessed martyrs Richard Whiting, Roger James and John Thorne, who in Glastonbury laid down their lives for their Faith, that true unity of Faith may be restored among Christians in this country and that we your servants may ever rejoice in health of mind and body to render you fitting praise. Amen.

At this Shrine of Our Blessed Lady we ask you, Almighty Father, to fill our hearts with thanks for our redemption. And as the names of Jesus and Mary were linked together in Glastonbury's ancient Shrine, we confidently ask through the merits of your divine Son and the intercession of his Blessed Mother, that You will grant us all we need for soul and body. Amen.

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All sentiments on this blog are my own. Please forgive any mistakes and accept that I may not agree with you, or indeed, you with me.